


Taste Test

by TrekFaerie



Series: HanniKinkMeme [3]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Cooking, Gen, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrekFaerie/pseuds/TrekFaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had heard that any chef who slighted Dr. Lecter never worked again. She just didn't realize where they ended up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taste Test

**Author's Note:**

> Any/any or gen, anything involving the helper cooks: http://hannibalkink.dreamwidth.org/1847.html?thread=2351159#cmt2351159

Margot had worked for many rich clients in the past, but none had been so hands-on as Dr. Lecter. Even as his dinner guests started arriving, he insisted on being in the kitchen, hovering around the chefs as if he didn’t fully trust them to complete the dishes to his standards.

Even with his overbearing nature, she rather liked him-- he was polite, calling her Madame Margot and speaking to her in flawless French, and he paid better than anyone else on the East Coast. The risk was high, of course (she had heard that any chef who slighted him never worked again), but she had confidence in her abilities. After all, he had hired her twice.

Still, she was worried about the pork tenderloin. It was the main course; if she messed it up, she was through! But, unfortunately, Margot was a strict vegetarian; her fear of failure did not outweigh her fear of spending the night leaning over a toilet seat. She needed a second opinion. “Antoine!” she whispered.

Antoine was one of Margot’s oldest friends, dating back to culinary school, and she trusted his judgement more than anyone else’s. “Yes?” he asked, not looking up from the lemon tarts he was decorating.

“Will you taste this, please?” She speared a small sliver of pork on a knife and held it out to him. “Is this overdone?”

He bit the sliver off the knife and chewed thoughtfully. “Oh, you worry too much! It’s--” He paused suddenly. “... Margot?”

“Yes, Antoine?”

“Do you remember when we went on holiday to Southeast Asia, and we spent a night in Cambodia?”

She remembered it well: She ended up getting food poisoning and spending the night sleeping in a hotel bathtub. She had such poor luck with foodborne illness... “What does that have to do with anything?”

He looked around quickly, then leaned in very, very close. “This is not pork,” he said. “I would tell you what this is, but I don’t wish to frighten you.”

It was like the world froze. Margot turned slowly to stare at Dr. Lecter, who was chatting with a pale-looking man by the doorway. She wondered if he knew... or if the guests out waiting in the dining room knew... And, more than anything, she wondered wherever he had gotten the not-pork from...

Maybe _that's_ why they never worked again...

“... I do not get paid nearly enough to think about that,” she said, shaking her head. “Help me put this on the plates.”

They never worked for him again. No amount of money would ever make _that_ okay.


End file.
